Mats Hummels Leaves Bayern Munich To Return To Borussia Dortmund

Germany international Mats Hummels has joined his former club Borussia Dortmund for $43 million. The German center back left Dortmund in 2016 and played for Bayern Munich for three years, winning the Bundesliga every year he was there.

The central defender brings experience and ability to this young Dortmund defense that will be contending for the Bundesliga next season against his former club. Hummels may be the edge Dortmund was lacking at the back, as they finished second, just two points behind Bayern in the league last season.

When Hummels joined Dortmund back in 2008, he played there for 8 seasons, scoring 25 goals and racking up 16 assists in 309 games at the back. During his tenure, he won the Bundesliga twice and won three German cups. Hummels has made 70 appearances for Germany and helped the team win the World Cup in 2014. After a few poor years with the German side, manager Joachim Low said that Hummels will not be selected for the national team again.

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The 30-year-old still has years left in his prime and could prove to be a major asset and mentor to help develop Dortmund’s young squad.

Bayern have been recruiting more promising central defenders with the likes of Atletico Madrid’s Lucas Hernandez and Stuttgart defender Benjamin Pavard, both French internationals.

After Dortmund sold their promising United States winger Christian Pulisic to Chelsea for a reported fee of $73.5 million, Dortmund have invested that money back into the squad. So far this summer, they’ve signed Hoffenheim’s Nico Schulz, a 26-year-old midfielder, Bayer Leverkusen’s Julian Brandt, a dynamic German winger, and Borussia Monchengladbach’s Thorgan Hazard, the younger brother of new Real Madrid signing, Eden Hazard. After the signing of Hummels, Dortmund have spent roughly $127 million so far this offseason.

Hummels will be joining with the new signings, as well as some familiar faces in the captain, Marco Reus, Mario Gotze and Marcel Schmelzer, who all played for Dortmund while Hummels was there back before he joined Bayern in 2016.

Dortmund’s manager Lucien Favre has also extended his contract, which will now keep him there until 2022. With the board spending this amount of money for the squad, it’s obvious they believe in Favre’s vision and ideas for the club’s future.